Sacramento-area mother and boyfriend sentenced in abuse death of 5-year-old
A Sacramento County man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the 2021 child abuse murder of his then-girlfriend’s son, and the child’s mother will serve nearly 13 years, the District Attorney Thien Ho’s office said Wednesday.
Jason Chitnis, 25, was convicted in June of murder and assault in the death of Lance Stowers, 5, who died of a traumatic brain injury that followed other violent abuse that broke his bones, including his ribs and pelvis, and perforated his intestine, Ho’s office said in a news release.
Chitnis had been watching the boy while his mother, Dyamond Hudson, was at work, the D.A.’s office said. Hudson, now 30, knew the child was being abused, but continued to leave him in Chitnis’ care, the prosecutor’s office said. She pleaded guilty in May to child endangerment causing death and two counts of cruel and inhumane corporal punishment and was sentenced to 12 years and 8 months in prison.
Online records show that she began serving her sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla in July.
Emergency personnel from the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District were called to an apartment on Fair Oaks Boulevard near Munroe Street in Arden Arcade on Aug. 3, 2021, after a report that a child was not breathing, according to previous Bee reporting. The boy was taken to a hospital, where he died two days later.
This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 10:56 AM.
